


In Tandem

by StuckyandStarWars



Category: Cyberpunk 2077 (Video Game)
Genre: A little bit of insecurity at the end, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Fluff, I love the idea that they share control over V's body, I think that's it - Freeform, Johnny doesn't have a body but they both live, M/M, No pronouns are used for V, Other, anyway, it's all "we" and "I", non sexual nudity, they cute or whateva
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-15 09:55:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29682213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StuckyandStarWars/pseuds/StuckyandStarWars
Summary: They both made it out alive, in a sense at least. An engram at full strength working as one with its host can be more than Arasaka ever dreamed."In Tandem" by Mintjulep
Relationships: Johnny Silverhand/V
Comments: 6
Kudos: 35





	In Tandem

**Author's Note:**

> Basically- Johnny and V have stabilized, she’s not dying and he’s still in her head. Very very lightly inspired by “Mind's End” by Plaidoctor, go fucking read it it’s so good. 
> 
> I didn't notice until halfway through that V is gender-neutral because they don't use any pronouns. I'm not used to first person or present tense so this was very fun and experimental!!
> 
> Lastly, I didn't actually name this after the song listed, but I put the name into Spotify after I finished and the song has no right to be so groovy so I credited it anyway.

If this was how a Relic chip was  _ supposed _ to work, it really was wonder tech. I knew it wasn’t, of course. Johnny and I were more ingrained than anything Arasaka could have imagined. The chip was supposed to completely overwrite me, but it wasn’t. Not any more. The engram and I… well, it wasn’t designed to create a co-conciseness in one person. Wasn’t designed to let the host and the Digi-Ghost work in unison.

We are the best merc in this whole fucking city. Yes,  _ we _ , as in Johnny and me, together, when we feel like it. It took a while to get used to. Long story short- Arasaka fell. We went into hiding for a few months. Took a vacation. That’s where we learned that a fully capable engram could do more than we could have possibly guessed. Learned we could take and relinquish control whenever we wished. Learned we could work together, engram and body. It took a lot of physical and mental training, a few screaming matches, and a few close calls on the early gigs, but now the memory of doing this without him feels cold and incorrect.

He’s next to me, though he doesn’t need to be (he can do this just as well from inside my head), with his metal hand gripped around a digital manifestation of the Malorian. It appears to be copying my own grip on the real gun, but I’m not a reflection of him. He fires twice and my left does the same. The Malestromer catches two bullets to his skull and crumples. 

“Clean!” I think to him as I shoot my own revolver straight forward and into the chest of the next attacker.

“When am I not?” he answers and spins on his heel. Our body responds to his turn and my step forward at the same time, making one clean motion. “See him?”

“I’ve got it. Get to the office.” It’s his turn to move us, letting me fire and take out the remaining two chromed gangers. 

“Gonna need a keycard, I think that big guy over there was the leader of this troop.” before he can finish I’ve quick hacked the door and we’re through. “Or that.”

He relinquishes his grip on the nerves in my arm and I holster both guns. “More are gonna be showing up here any minute.”

“Then jack in and let’s go.”

I connect my personal link to the computer. The documents here are supposed to be useful to Rouge in one way or another- though she insisted her client’s confidentiality was incredibly important to them- but the read I get on them as they pass through my skull is pretty much nothing but gibberish. 

“Encrypted, damn. Must be important.”

I nod. “We should move.” The link slithers back into my arm with a click. “Window?”

“Fire escape.” He confirms.

I pry the window open and hop out onto the metal platform. It has ladders, not stairs, so I grip the edges and slide down to the piles of trash below. Our newly customized ARCH bike is already waiting on the road out front. I straddle the seat and start it up, ready to head for home, but both my arms lock and the familiar hologram of silver cybernetic flickers into place over my left. 

“I’ll drive. Talk to Rouge.”Johnny settles his chin into the crook of my shoulder and neck, pressing a kiss behind my ear.

“Happily,” I answer the holo call from our favorite fixer. “That what you were after?”

“Perfect job you two.” She answers. “The client is very pleased with your quote ‘haste and efficiency’, as am I.”

“Who the fuck says efficiency?” Johnny says, out loud, through my lips.

“The client does. Your eddies are on their way. That’s all the gigs I’ve got at the moment, go put your feet up on that little loveseat of yours. Have a drink. Been working yourself to the bone since you got back.”

“We were planning on it, actually. Haven’t gotten much time in the new digs.” I take back my vocal cords. “Gotta make a stop first, though.”

The holo call ends. “We really gotta make a stop?”

“It’s checkup time with Vik, you know that.”

“Oh come on, look at us! We’re doing great. Just got paid absolute bank, let’s go home. Have a drink. Like Rouge said.”

Despite his protests, Johnny steers us towards Vik’s shop and lets me walk us in. The Ripperdoc is bent over a patient, but he spares us a glance.

“V! I’ll be right with you.”

“We’re here in time for our appointment, doc! Runnin’ a little slow there.” Johnny only talks to Vik when he’s in the mood to fuck with the doctor.

It only seems to get to Viktor a little, his shoulders tensing for a second, but the man whose arm he is so diligently fixing turns to look. Young, probably in his early twenties, and definitely a wannabe merc. If the name  _ V _ didn’t catch his attention, that same person referring to themselves as “we” certainly did, and his eyes go wide.

“Holy shit…” he says, then snaps his gaping mouth shut. “I mean- Y-you hang around the Afterlife? Feel like I’ve seen you there.”

Vik laughs at that, as do I. “Please,” I start. “Don’t bullshit me.”

“You really got two people in your head?” Always the first question.

“Rude.” Johnny steps in to answer. “If you knew anything about anything you’d know that’s fuckin’ true.”

“B- how?”

“Alright, kid. You’re done. Out. Take better care of that arm, fucks sake. Aren’t always gonna have the spare eds for it.”

Vik ushers the boy away, not letting him stay starstruck over me. I feel a little swell of pride in our chest, mostly Johnny’s but somewhat mine, the same as every time some gonk kid recognized us.

“Okay.” He sits down on his little rolly stool and gestures at the patient chair, which I take. “How’re you feeling?”

I shrug. “Fuckin’ great. Really startin’ to get a grip on workin’ together, it feels more natural than doing anything alone. I’m sure the people that come through here talk enough gossip for you to know what’s been goin’ on.”

“Any relic malfunctions? Problems with the chip?”

“Nope, same as last time. We’re all peachy, really Vik. Haven’t had a malfunction since you worked your magic.”

“No headaches? At all?”

I sighed. “Really, Vik. We’ve been over this. I get a headache if he tries to take control and I don’t let him- which never happens. Other than that it’s a normal amount, like when we didn’t sleep enough or haven’t eaten.”

Damnit, he hates it when I refer to myself as  _ we _ . He says he’s trying to understand but he’s taking the longest out of anyone. Rouge understood the quickest, only referring to us as two. Kerry understands that it’s both of us but mostly calls us “V and Johnny”, which is perfectly fine. Panam pretends to understand, but at least she tries. Vik hasn’t gotten over hating Johnny from when he was slowly eating at my brain.

“It’s been three months we’ve been back and he really hasn’t been able to understand it. He’s never gonna.” Johnny stepped into view, arms crossed. 

Vik moved on. “And Johnny? How’s he?”

“We just told you, old man. Doin’ great. Best I’ve ever been, that’s for sure.” He moved to stand beside me as if Vik could see him, despite speaking through my mouth. “V’s doing great, I’m doing great, just got paid, looking forward to takin’ the rest of the day off. Anything else or can we get the scan over with?”

“Sorry about him-” I knew it would take Vik a moment to process that I was speaking again, not Johnny. “-but we are looking forward to the afternoon.”

I kick my legs over the side of the chair and lay back. Vik rolls over to make sure the equipment is in position, then tells us to lay still while he scans. I can feel Johnny’s desire to move at the last second to piss him off, but he manages to sit still as the blue rays scan my face. Vik turns to his computer and pulls up my scans from the last few months. I can’t see the screen, but Johnny can. He appears over Vik’s shoulder.

“Same as the last month and a half.” He says, resting an arm on Vik’s head. “I think we’re in the clear, babe.”

“Seem to be all good, V! I’m cutting down the checkups to once a month. And call me if anything changes.”

“Of course. You’re the best, Vik!” I jump out of the chair and wire him the usual fee for a checkup before he can refuse it. “Just got our bills paid, might as well help with yours.”

“Thanks. Take care of yourself.”

I shoot him a thumbs-up through the gate before taking the stairs two at a time to the surface. 

“Wanna order lunch? Can tell you don’t feel like cooking.”

“We’ve got leftovers.”

“Yeah, of Scop. We’ve gotta go back to Ker’s for dinner sometime,  _ that _ was good.”

“So you’re okay with eating real food, available only to the rich-”

“Darlin’ please, everything you eat is produced by AllFoods, it’s not exactly ethical consumption. The only way to eat without supporting a corp is to either farm it or hunt and kill it. With the lack of animals and those same corps owning every piece of semi-fertile land in this whole goddamn country, you’d be hard fucking pressed to do either. Even if we were to farm our own food, the equipment and chemicals needed to do that are owned by Biotechnica. Livin’ within the system is supporting it, no doubt about it. Don’t condemn me because I want to eat real food once every three months.”

“I was joking.” I chuckle as I start up our bike.

He presses a kiss on my cheek. “I know.”

He lets me drive home, taking the time to continue defending his craving for a real burger. Our new apartment isn’t far from the old one, the main difference being it’s on the top floor of its own building and not in a Megabuilding. Instead of a one-room shithole, it’s got a bathroom with full walls and a doorway, a bedroom with the same treatment (and a mattress Johnny calls heavenly compared to the last one), and a small half-kitchen in the living room. I park in front of the building and take the elevator up. As soon as I’m in the safety of the locked doors I peel the blood-soaked clothes off and B-line to the bathroom. 

Johnny leans against the wall of the shower and joins in on my singing. A song I’d never heard before him but know every word to know. 

“Wish I could be in the kitchen, mixin’ you a drink.” He laments as we finish the song and I turn the shower off. 

“I can mix myself a drink.” I grab a towel and start drying.

“I know you  _ can _ ,” He gently eases control from me and takes to copying how I dry. “But I want to.”

He does, though I know he meant he wanted to have it ready when I got out of the shower. I throw on my sweatpants and two-sizes-too-big samurai shirt and collapse into the couch before taking a sip. 

“Mmm.” Johnny hums, the taste hitting his tongue at the same time it does mine.

The delay has been completely negated. Actually, quite a few things have changed since we stabilized him. We can move together now, but other than that Johnny has much more control over himself. He can change what he wears outside of just the vest and the tank top. His memories are much clearer to both of us, there’s never the risk that my hand could go through him when I reach out, and with a bit of effort he can materialize a digital object.

That’s what he does now, zapping a recreation of his guitar into his lap and taking a few seconds to tune it.

“Couldn’t be bothered to summon it already tuned?”

“Fuck off, this feels more authentic.” He finishes the cursory few strums and starts playing a tune, something I vaguely recognize but not by name.

He’s sitting close enough that his arm bumps mine as he plays, so I shift to where I’m leaning against the arm of the sofa and have my legs spread out over his lap. He smiles and begins to sing, lyrics not matching the slow strumming he’s set. It’s some old punk song, that much I can tell. I don’t bother digging for details in his mind. I don’t feel like looking for the first time he ever heard it. I’m not in the mood to remember. Instead, I focus on remembering this moment.

Johnny can play the song without having to think about it and I feel his surface thoughts drift around. They settle on something that hurts- though he doesn’t want me to know exactly what- and I watch his expression fall.

“Hey.” I poke him with the heel of my foot. “Eddie for your thoughts?”

“You can get them for free if you want, darlin’.”

“Not gonna break our boundaries just because I wanna know what’s up. You can tell me if you wanna.”

He sighs and switches to a Samurai song. “Just wonderin’ how long this can last.”

“Been good for three months. Since when does Johnny Silverhand think about the future?”

“Since he found something.”

“Sap.” He smiles as I poke him again. “But how long what can last? If Vik’s tests are right then we’re stuck together forever. And unless you’re breaking up with me-”

“No! Fuck. ‘s just… well nothin’ lasts for me. I can’t help but think one of these days you’re gonna want to be with someone  _ real _ .”

“Shut up.” I sit up and bend awkwardly to reach his face. “You’re as real as they get. Not gonna leave you for some gonk just because they have a meat suit. Just the thought of bein’ in this one alone again scares me. This is gonna last for however long you want it to.”

He grins, relief replacing his concern in our stomach, and pulls me in for a kiss. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
